Millet Mayor reflects on year that was

When I look back on 2018, I reflect that good things do indeed happen, but it often takes a lot of patience for them to materialize. So it has been for the Town of Millet during the past year, 2018.

After the last election took place in late 2017, we had great expectations that our two new developments – the residential development in Lakeside Meadows on the west side of town and the industrial development in the lands annexed on the east side of the railway tracks – would both begin early in 2018. We saw delays in both of these new endeavours thwarting our early hopes but, as this year ends, I am happy to report that both projects are now moving ahead and we will see new construction in 2019.

Our first new industrial tenant, Haliburton Group, has now taken occupancy in Millet Industrial Park and more tenants will come soon. Regulatory hurdles in the Lakeside Meadows development have now been overcome and construction of Phase I (consisting of 31 single-family dwellings and 38 seniors’ units in a gated community) will begin in March. I am quite sure that we will see lots more construction activity now taking place within our Town throughout the coming 2019 year! This has, indeed, been a long time in coming to Millet!

On other fronts, the Town was able move ahead in a number of areas in 2018. Firstly,

legal issues pertaining to the City of Wetaskiwin’s withdrawal from the Joint Economic Development Initiative (JEDI) have now been resolved and the picture looks very rosy for us!! We anticipate 2019 being a bumper year for our new partnership in JEDI with the County of Wetaskiwin. The County successfully acquired a major grain terminal development in mid-2018 which, coupled with the new growth in Millet’s Industrial Park, will see dividends being returned to both the County and Town in 2019. We can clearly see that our patience in supporting the JEDI initiative over the past 15 years will, indeed, realize the handsome benefits first envisaged by our municipal predecessors many years ago.

Another issue that has created much interest in Millet over the past year is the Millet School building. Recently declared as “surplus” to the School Board’s requirements, the Town has been offered the opportunity to take the building over. After a very positive meeting held with many of our residents in the early summer, we are now concluding our process of due diligence and I anticipate that a decision will be made by our Council very early in the New Year.

I cannot complete this synopsis of 2018 without mentioning the tremendously successful and enjoyable evening that we all enjoyed in Millet on Sunday Dec. 9 when the CP Holiday Train pulled into our Town. What a tremendous turnout we had, with over 3,000 people jamming the centre of Town welcoming the Train, enjoying the great music and creating a magical experience for all. Thank you again to all involved!